JVC GR-DV2000U Camcorder Review

by Robin Liss
Published on Mar 22, 2004 12:00 AM



JVC's GR-DV2000U is the newest and flashiest of JVC's upscale line of sleek, lightweight camcorders. It weighs only 1.54 pounds and measures 2.66 in. x 3.75 in. x 5.47 in. It retails at $2199.95. The DV2000U is JVC's most feature-packed offering. Some of these features may be useful to you, and some may not, depending on your specific needs and desires. In particular, JVC advertises this as a camera specially designed to facilitate connecting it to a PC and editing your video and digital stills.

The DV2000U features JVC's exclusive new Progressive 1000 technology, which claims to use the 680,000-pixel CCD processor to provide a horizontal resolution of 520 lines and a vertical resolution of 480 lines. It also features JVC's NightAlive low-light shooting feature. It has digital image stabilization and a built-in 3.5" LCD color monitor, along with a color viewfinder and S-video output on a Jack Box. In addition to the 10x optical zoom, the DV2000U has a 300x digital zoom. It also comes with a multi-brand remote control, which comes in handy during playback. Also, it offers the ability to shoot stills UXGA resolution (1600 x 1200 pixels). The resolution offered is great, the best on any JVC.

Like most other new camcorders, the DV2000U also has digital-still capabilities and includes software and lots of hardware, like a USB driver and FireWire cables, to facilitate transfer to your computer (which is why JVC is particularly proud of this aspect and considers it a selling point of this camera). It also features a ton of snazzier extras, like snapshot modes, playback zoom, an animation mode, and wipes, fades, and scene transitions to accessorize your video. The animation mode is really cool, it allows to to take one shot at a time for stop motion animation. It also has the ability to use MP3 sound effects stored on its MultiMediaCard card. Lastly, the DV2000U functions in Dual Shooting Mode, meaning that you can shoot video and take still photos at the same time.

Although this camera seems like a solid specimen, it's worth noting the few areas in which it could improve. First of all, the optical zoom is only 10x, which is the minimum generally featured on camcorders today. The 300x digital zoom may sound great, but really it is worth little when the optical zoom is so limited. The NightAlive feature is okay when compared to other manufacturers, but the video is unuseable, so beware when shooting in low light. The battery that comes with the camera has a fairly limited life before it needs to be recharged, and the camera's impressive list of extras may make it confusing to operate. However, the impressive list of extras can be great for the experienced user. The DV2000U's manual controls are limited; only focus, exposure, and white balance have manual options. Everything else is automated. For a beginner, this may be a good thing, but for a more advanced videographer this may be limiting.

Like the DVM75U, the DV2000U features removable Flash Memory. The 16MB card is included and is compatible with MultiMediaCard and SD Card. This is a great improvement because you can store your digital still photographs onto this computerized memory card, rather than saving them on your tapes. This improves the quality and the quantity available to you in your digital stills. On the DV2000U you can also store sound effects on this card and use them in your videos. At 16MB, the memory card is the biggest one featured in any JVC camcorder, so there's plenty of storage room for lots of stuff.

Another good improvement over other JVC miniDV camcorders is that the DV2000U features an analog in. This means that if you have old, analog video, you can attach it to your camcorder and use the camcorder itself to help you convert it into digital format. Then you can use all the computer hookups and software to edit it or store it.

Overall, the DVM2000U gives good-quality video and sound, and it's small and portable (although some people worry that its small size makes it too hard to handle). It has a lot of snazzy extras, but it also has a few serious drawbacks. Be sure you know exactly what your needs are in a camcorder — and whether or not the DV2000U fulfills them — before purchasing it. Otherwise, you may just be paying a lot more for a bunch of extras you don't need or want.